Firefox OS Apps run on Android

At Mozilla we believe that apps and browsing are best viewed as cooperative and symbiotic, each better when working together. We are working to strengthen that relationship by building an apps ecosystem that is built using the Web technologies that so many developers are already familiar with.

We built Firefox OS as a mobile OS that puts the Web and Open Web Apps at the centre of the mobile experience. The efforts to reduce the performance gaps between the Web and native are paying rich dividends and our work on exposing device capabilities to the Web via WebAPIs, have made web first app development a viable alternative to native platforms.

Build Open Web Apps, run out-of-the-box on Android

Now, with Firefox for Android 29, Mozilla is extending this open Open Web Apps ecosystem to Android. Over the past few months, we have been working on providing a “native experience” for Open Web Apps. What this means is that as a user, you can now manage your web app just like you would a native app. You can install/update/uninstall the app and the app will also show up in the App Drawer as well as the Recent Apps list.

As a developer, you can now build your Open Web App for Firefox OS devices and have that app reach millions of existing Firefox for Android users without having to change a single line of code!

Check out the video to see an Open Web App in action on an Android device,

Just tested this on nexus 4 with the game I published to Firefox marketplace. After I enabled installation of apps from sources other than the Play store my game integrated into the device just like a native app.

Now for me this is cool because I know I can trust my game but how realistic is for a regular not tech savvy user to mess with the security settings. When they see the warning they will probably opt not to install the app because they will be afraid to change security settings on their device.

This is great progress by the Mozilla team never the less. I really hope Firefox OS becomes relevant in smartphone space. We need more diversity there.

I think Mozilla is wrong when promoting Firefox OS mobiles for “poor countries”. Android is already cheap enough for “the poors”. Firefox OS makes sense and excels specially for enterprises, since it allows to develop custom enterprise apps just once using web technologies and it will work on any device. All they need is to put the tools to make the (Firefox OS) phone easy to lock down, letting a central server control what apps can be run or not and also get sure that the rendering gecko engine behave the same on any platform. An enterprise can’t afford to triplicate development resources to have an Android, Windows and web versions. And most entreprises today already have the expertise and infraestructure to deploy web apps. Changing from PCs to tablets to phones usually require not much more than changing the CSS.

what about storage space used by the app? last time i tried to install firefox browser app on android, even moving the app to SD, it still used over 50mb of prime app storage (on a phone with 250mb, mind you)

will a app bundled this way (which i belive has a gaia wrapper) also use that much app storage over time?

About the Authors

Technical Evangelist & Editor of Mozilla Hacks. Gives talks & blogs about HTML5, JavaScript & the Open Web. Robert is a strong believer in HTML5 and the Open Web and has been working since 1999 with Front End development for the web - in Sweden and in New York City.
He regularly also blogs at http://robertnyman.com and loves to travel and meet people.